I have finished version 2.0 of the volume shader package. Some features have been already in the 1.7 update (which was compiled because of the 64bit dlls)

Download and license and old scenes
You can find the download on the download site which you received with your license file. You do NOT need any new license for the update.
The current addon is for XSI 5.0! I have to test all shaders in XSI 4.2 if they render properly.
All old scenes can be rendered with this new addon. YOU HAVE TO DEINSTALL THE OLD ADDON!! PLEASE BE SURE THAT THE OLD ADDON FOLDER DOES NOT EXIST BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE NEW ONE. If the old does still exists after deinstallation, please rename it first, THEN try delete it.

New Features

Particle gradient: Main new feature is a gradient for the particles. Now it is much easier to set a color gradient based on the age and/or density of the particles.

External input for the scalar_primitice shader: You can define an external object (e.g. implicit sphere) to control the position and scale of this shader.

Cubic Interpolation for Volume Cloud: The Volume cloud supports now cubic interpolation for the lookup table. 15% percent slower, but it gives you better results if you have a high contrast in the lighting of the cloud.

The Solid Shader: The solid shader uses a new algorithm to calculate the intersection surface. As a main rule, you should increase the ray marching step to a much higher value. 4-5 times higher as a starting point.

Some example images:
All examples shown here are part of the new sample scenes. All examples are just simple setups to show you the possibilties of the new shaders.

This example uses the gradient to create a occlusion (dirtmap) like shading for the particle cloud:

Or use the gradient based on age and density to create explosion like effects:

Improved normal shading for the Volume Cloud to create very thick smoke:

"Bubble density"

You can use (implicit) objects to control the scalar_primitive,
you can use it with a mix2color on a default lambert shader...

Oh, forgot something:
I have heard from 2 persons that they had problems installing the last addon into XSI 5.0.
The problem was that they have not been able to apply the shaders in the render tree. I have done some manual editing for the current addon.

If someone of you gets this problem, the only solution is to install the spdls manually one by one. Please contact me, then I can give you a link for a zip file containing all spdls._________________Holger SchÃ¶nberger
Binary Alchemy - digital materialization

is it possible to use the age gradient to define the density of the particles instead of the ptype alpha values. i tried a couple of the things that didn't seem to work (like making a pt_metaball gradient go from black to white and plug this into the volume cloud density, but that made the cloud all spotty.

>is it possible to use the age gradient to define the density of the
>particles instead of the ptype alpha values. i tried a couple of the
>things that didn't seem to work (like making a pt_metaball gradient
>go from black to white and plug this into the volume cloud density,
>but that made the cloud all spotty.

Should be possible.
Which conversion do you use between the PT_metaball and the volume cloud. You should not pick the alpha, you have to pick an RGB channel.
Then I hop that the gradient slider is completely set to age, is it?
I can to such a test when I am back from a meeting

EDIT: I have not tested it, but I have something in mind, the result of the PT_metaball is not premultiplied. Perhaps you have to multiply the color with the alpha._________________Holger SchÃ¶nberger
Binary Alchemy - digital materialization

Last edited by schoenberger on Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:18 pm; edited 1 time in total